Thursday, October 16, 2014

A new conference: Python Namibia!

The Python community has been fortunate to experience a lot of growth over the last few years, especially when it comes to user groups and conferences. A lot of these meetings have seen huge attendance, with PyCon having sold out the last three years, regional conferences seeing sharp growth, and some monthly meetups occasionally "selling out" (they're free, but attract more than the venue can hold). On top of those existing events growing, we're seeing more events pop up around the world.

We just got word that another new conference is starting up: Python Namibia, taking place February 2-5. This first time conference is taking place in Windhoek at the University of Namibia, with collaboration from Cardiff University, giving a group of students an opportunity to attend as part of their studies!

"Open-source software represents an opportunity for developing nations to become owners and producers of the software that they need; it's a key to their future prosperity," said organizer Daniele Procida. "There's an enormous benefit to software developers in being part of a supportive community."

The conference plans to start with two days of talks, a day of workshops and tutorials, and concluding with collaborative activities like sprints, as well as planning work for hosting a PyCon Namibia in 2016.

"We hope that this event will help programmers in Namibia feel that they belong to a welcoming international community that values their participation - and that it will help set a series of virtuous circles into motion," says Daniele.

The mission of the Python Software Foundation is to promote, protect, and advance the Python programming language, and to support and facilitate the growth of a diverse and international community of Python programmers.